Before I buy any books for 4.0, I would like to know if the physical books (PHB, DMG, MM) have been edited after WotC updated their online definitions. This has been bugging me for a while now. A friend of mine said he bought a book this year, but that some spell definitions and such were not updated to the definitions that were released some years ago.
2 Answers
No.
The books are not updated; if you buy them, you are expected take care of the updates yourself, by perusing the official rule update PDFs.
The alternative used to be simple: buy a subscription to D&D Insider. However, with the fifth edition coming soon, who knows how long they will keep the 4e sites running...
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4\$\begingroup\$ It's worth mentioning that the most uptodate in print rules document is the Rules Compendium \$\endgroup\$ Mar 5, 2014 at 1:54
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\$\begingroup\$ DDI will be kept running as long as they have enough people to warrant it being run. \$\endgroup\$– GMNoobJul 23, 2014 at 13:04
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\$\begingroup\$ Can anyone point me to the correct page? Mala's link is broken. \$\endgroup\$ Oct 10, 2014 at 9:51
Another partial no.
D&D in particular has had negative response from publishing updated books. This is already difficult between major revisions, but the update between 3.0 and 3.5 was poorly received.
This is one of the reasons they don't want to update the core books too often. They do seem to be coming out with various confusing boxed sets though, but as I won't give money to Hasbro I'm not up on the new stuff.
It does seem really really awful that people need to either have a computer of some sort (laptop, phone, etc) or to print off pages of PDFs. I too would prefer actual updated hardcover books rather than houserules-feeling binders of paper.
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\$\begingroup\$ The... update between 3.0 and 3.5 was poorly received? That's new to me! Here on Brazil, 3.5 is almost the only acceptable way to play a 3.x game! Where the 3.5 was poorly received? Do you have some links? \$\endgroup\$– T. SarJul 23, 2014 at 15:46
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\$\begingroup\$ This is not analogous to the 3.0 -> 3.5 update. D&D 4e's core rulebooks received some errata, like the Stealth skill being updated to greatly clarify sneaking, and various powers being reworded slightly to better fit convention or make the intended effect work properly. None of these fundamentally change much at all. In other words: the question's whether there's new versions of the PHBs that include errata. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 4, 2014 at 3:38
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\$\begingroup\$ @Thales - The update from 3.0 to 3.5 was poorly received because early 3.0 adopters were "forced" to purchase new books. 3.5 turned out to be a very good system which many players love. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 9, 2014 at 6:16